Timing is, of course, everything. Which is why, despite my efforts to root it out earlier, news that Ryane Clowe had signed for $1.6 million broke while I was 90-minute flight from my computer. So it goes.

I’m about to abandon my keyboard once again. But before I do, let me throw out a laundry list of Shark-related items as a little good-bye offering.

1) Do not be surprised if the Sharks announce a contract extension soon for defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic, who is now scheduled to become a restricted free agent next July. Talks with his agent are under way and, so I hear, going well.

2) I know a lot of you are ready for training camp. But it looks as if you’ll have to wait a little longer than you might have thought. The NHL pushed the starting dates back at least a week this season. Nothing official yet, but it’s my understanding that Sharks veterans won’t be reporting until sometime around Sept. 19.

3) Rookies and prospects are expected to show up about a week earlier. And while it doesn’t look as if there will be the four-team tournament of years past, I’m advised that at least a couple games are scheduled in Las Vegas against another Pacific Division team before the vets arrive. Vegas? Hmmm, better have the boss check the travel budget.

4) The Sharks newly assembled coaching staff will be trickling into San Jose in late August and early September. Meanwhile, Coach Todd McLellan is getting things ready at the team’s practice rink. There’s furniture to be purchased and a little redesign work as well. McLellan is hoping to carve out space for a conference room where coaches can go over video with select players in a little less crowded setting.

5) McLellan has been setting up shop and continuing to talk with players. But he’s also tried to make the transition easier on his family by taking a couple days with them just to get to know the area. One day, that meant a drive to San Francisco. Another day, they headed to Half Moon Bay, then absorbed the wonders of the Pacific Coast before taking that first drive over Highway 17 for the ride home.

6) The McLellans still have one longer trip scheduled, heading back to Saskatoon to spend a day with the Stanley Cup. When that was scheduled for Aug. 18, the Sharks new coach had no idea that schools re-opened that early in California. But now it looks like his sons will be missing their first two days of classes. In my book, that’s certainly an excused absence. Wonder how the teachers will see it.

7) Finally, since I know many of you missed the short item in the paper Tuesday on the re-signing of Ryane Clowe, here’s what his agent, Paul Cobeil, had to say about the fact no contract was signed until months following a handshake agreement between Clowe and Doug Wilson in the GM’s office.

Cobeil pointed out that the handshake took place when Clowe was still in rehab. And having played only a handful of games, it was “tough for him to bring the numbers for a bigger contract.”

As for Clowe’s decision to take a one-year deal, Cobeil said that made the most sense because he expected both the left wing and the team to have more success this coming season.

“We will look to the future after next season,” he explained.

Anyway, that’s it for now. Keep the conversation going without me.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

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There Probably will be some younger guys making their way up to the big club this season. We’ll have to see what happens in camp… I think Cavanagh, Plihal, Kaspar, Joslin, or Spang are all possibilities

#34 BC Unfortunatley Iggulden is now with the Islanders, he signed with them this offseason

y

crickets sure are loud in here…..

Ivano

This is possibly the quietest period on this blog since the blog opened. It’ll change soon enough – 58 days left, which is about half way mark since I started the count down. In fact, first preseason game is in about 40 days.

Anyone watching the Olympics? I love watching swimming, but I think I enjoy winter Olympics more – the hockey tournament can’t be beaten by some dude trying to win 8 gold medals. Wouldn’t it be sweet to again watch whether or not Joe Thornton and the boys can beat Nabokov, Ovechkin and the Co.?

DC

Speaking of the winter olympics and hockey, allan muir wrote a ridiculous article predicting who should be included on the canadian team. What makes it so ridiculous is that he leaves out Joe Thornton from the 2010 roster, citing his “lack of mental toughness.” A self-proclaimed Bruins fan, I suppose he still has bad dreams about the trade? Here’s the link:

DC
Well, he does have a point that slow Joe might not be as useful against fast Russians (just think of the forward line up with Ovechkin, Datsyuk, Malkin, Kovalchuk, Zherdev just to name a few) and Americans, but at the same time Muir includes Doan in the line up – same Doan who’s never been past 1st round of playoffs, and Towes, who’s got zero experience of playing in knock out rounds at such level.

All that Joe needs is a SC ring on his finger so that trolls like Muir will shut up forever.

y

Just an obsevation that could mean nothing at all, but the Sharks today signed Lucas Kaspar, and looking at the roster on sjsharks.com it does not list Ryane Clowe any more…he was there the other day. Just sayin’ is all.
These things usually mean something, I mean didn’t they just sign him to a 1 year deal a couple weeks ago…shouldn’t Clowe indeed be listed? Is this a typo? hmmmm….

y

oh, and why is Tom Cavanagh listed on the roster anyway?!?

Ivano

y
They’ve only recently listed Goc, who was signed a while back, and they had Clowe listed before he signed, so don’t stress too much about that. My guess is that an intern is handling that part of the web-site.

y

I dunno Ivano, I’ve seen this sort of thing happen in the past…for instance when Scott Hannan left…he was off the roster way before it was announced. And the other thing is this…why remove him and only him if there’s no reason for it? Strange to say the least.

Ivano

y
Don’t panic and think about this one again – why on earth would they resign him then?

goaliepuke

You really can’t go by the “current players” list. Plihal is there but not signed yet. And there is CLOWE stuff all over the website. He’s also out of the country right now eh?

And besides, PM still listed. Didn’t he get traded before July 1?

—tweekin’—-

LOL!

y

Like I said…probably nothing, but strange.

Evilducks

Kaspar has been signed for almost a week now, they’re just slow to announce anything. Apparently all of your Shark signings can be updated by reading the NHLPA website as they’ve been spot on every time so far this off season. Well, at least when it comes to resignings anyway, they’re not as fast on new acquisitions

Not that I want it to happen, but I could see the humor in Clowe getting a sign in his hometown with him displayed as a Shark only to get traded a week or two later.

WheresSundin

Regarding scheduling a game in SLC on Sunday? I don’t see the problem. Mormon sabbath is Saturday…

Ivano

If Pollak himself abandoned his keyboard right, why would anyone on Sharks staff still have theirs?

.. Anyone else is watching all the Sharks playoff games they’re replaying on the NHLN recently? This week they’re showing the Detroit series every night. It’s strange to see McLellan on that opposing branch. It’s even more strange to see Carle actually being not a bad puck mover at the time and a QB on a PP. RW with a goatee is priceless. They replayed game 2 today and I was once again reminded why I’ve grown to hate RW – his teams knew how to fall apart when victories were so close. Why nobody picked up Datsyuk who scored on an open net with 1m27s remaining is beyond me. Who he freely skated by? Marleau and Hannan – two players who would again fall apart two games later, again in a major way. Bye-bye Ron..

UberJiffer

Ivano, Just so you know that someone is still reading this blog on daily basis and that you are not alone in this room 😉

goaliepuke

Ivano, I’m surprised you mis-characterized that winning goal by the Wings. NHN, just played Game 2 again. I was reminded what happened there too.

Actually Hannan wasn’t on the ice for their winning goal. It was KMac and Rivet. Pavel didn’t just skate by anyone, but he was going to the net after curling around the net. Malreau was there too, but he was coming off the boards from helping KMac cover Zetterburg. Rivet came out to block Samualson’s shot — and didn’t. That left Pavel open and the rebound from Nabby fell right to his backhand while Nabby was doing the splits from the shot.

None of that should have ever happened though.

The sequence before that — Hannan didn’t get the puck out. Then Nabby tried and failed, then the nail for the coffin, Bell didn’t get the puck while Chelios made a good play by reading what Bell was doing; and kept it in zone. The rest of the Sharks started to move like Bell was getting the puck out — and it became a Broken play because he failed. A Wings team traditionally will be able take advantage of ANY other team that doesn’t get the puck out of zone.

So, there’s at least one reason Bell and Hannan were gone after that series.

I also don’t think there was enough there to hate RW because of the failure of a couple players. You might ask why Bell was out there though.

Thankfully, we didn’t need to worry about Bell and Hannan giving the puck away in our own zone any longer, especially like the give away later in the series to Schneider. That job was passed to Rissmiller last season. If there’s any justice for RW in that respect, he now has Mark Bell as goat for 08-09.

GP

sparkie

Did anyone else hear that Hannen “bolted” from SJ rather than the other way around? I heard that he didn’t care for RW much and he decided to leave, not the other way around.

Ivano

UberJiffer
Thanks.

GP
Oh well – either way, we choked, and tonight is game 4. I clearly remember that one. The pain has not yet gone away, and I might just skip the third period.

I actually find the replasy to be very interesting. Watching Detroit on the PP, it makes a perfect sense why we acquired Blake. I bet the idea came directly from McLellan. The puck always went to the middle first, which sucked up the opposing defense and opens up lanes for peeps like Lidstrom and Schneider to fire from the sides. We’ll see this a lot. Their PP however was still very unpredictable and fun to watch. And San Jose? Same old same old – give the puck to Joe and wait and see what happens.

It also made me think who will play a role of Datsyuk in this new offense of ours? Whenever he’s on the ice, he’s a point guard and puck always goes to him, he enters the zone, and then things begin to happen. Who on our offense has the speed and the skill to hold the puck so easily the way Datsyuk does? I think Joe is too slow and not a good dribbler. Cheechoo? Marleau for 2nd line?

Ivano

sparkie
Hannan was terrible in playoffs, so if anything, I imagine it was a mutual decision. It’s not like he’s been an all-star with Colorado since then anyway, so it was a good riddance.

goaliepuke

Sparkie, it’ll depend on who you ask.

I’m sure Hannan waited long enough to find out if RW would be retained so he could cry somewhere else. I don’t dislike him as a player, but if you don’t sign or want to be signed because of a coach — that happens to criticize you for some awful plays at critical times in critical games, well, don’t let the door hit ya….. RW would easily give credit too.

A mature PRO would have recognized this was a good team and wanted to be a part of it going fwd — despite the coach. He created his own problem no matter who/how the decision was made.

Conclusion: Hannan bailed on his team-ates.

Ting

Any 3rd line grinders out in Free Agency who can kill penalties? Or is Mitchell and Grier all we got? Something tells me we could’ve used a guy like Sean Avery.

How important do people think is it to have an instigator like an Ott and Avery or is it overrated? I look at Detroit and Pittsburgh’s roster and I see mostly skill and not a classic ‘get under your skin’ type of guy.

That being said, I wonder who will be out there killing penalties for us next season besides Mitchell and Grier.

Ivano

Ting
Watch for Marleau out there, as he showed he’s a big asset on PK in the Dallas series. Goc also used to play on PK frequetnly before Mitchell arrived.

afhockeygoalie

Is there a sharks message board that is in the works constantly? I need more sharks content then what the Sj mercury news doles out. No offense to DP who does a great job. I just need more sharks content

Sharks247

(In a small voice she whined, “Is it Hockey Season yet?”)

Watching all the swimming, cycling, track & field, boxing, soccer, waterpolo, volleyball, tennis, fencing, badminton, and gymnastics is all fine and good. NASCAR is boring right now and will be until the teams are allowed to tweak those stupid COT cars. Tour de France came and went. Hate baseball. Glad Keven Garnett finally got an NBA playoff ring. NFL will be coming back on line soon, sure-fine-whatever, it’s not here yet. NHL channel replays just don’t cut it and who the hell told DP he could take a break? It’s been almost 10 days since his last post. He should be chained to his keyboard. I WANT HOCKEY NOW!

Ok , now that that’s out of my system, going to watch Micheal Phelps kick some more butt.

Geez – I need a life. “-D

goaliepuke

Marleau was a big asset on the PK until RW pulled him off when Korky was still around — because he didn’t want one of his best players to get hurt blocking a shot.

I always kinda disagreed with that move. If I’m not mistaken, Cheechoo took some shifts on the penalty kill too.

Hmm, Hey Bruins fans, didn’t Joe work the PK in Boston too?

y

….still no Clowe on the roster. Just sayin’

Ivano

y
Are you sure? Just checked, Clowe is on the roster.

So.. Can this off season be any slower?

y

miraculous…they must have snuck him on there while I wasn’t looking, he was absent for about a week.

David H

Is It Camp Yet.

David H

Hockey droooooooool!!!!!!!!

Where is my Hockey?

tadpole

As the list seems to be dying for some kind of news, this is not news on the Sharks, but might be of interest to us who are dying for SOMETHING. One of my favorite rumor pages, http://www.spectorshockey.net/ was hacked by someone, so that explains why he dropped off for a few days. All his history was lost. He’s now back as of yesterday. Anyone want to fess up? 🙂

elle

McLellan signing autographs at the sharks store on august 27th, nice way to meet the new coach eh?

SCSharksFan

Coach’s autograph? Is that even worth anything yet? Just curious…

Actionman408

Do you guys know that Drew and Randy are in NHL 2K9. Just putting it out their.

I don’t think I care so much about an authograph as I always lose them later, but since no one else in this town writes about hockey these days, I might as well ask the coach a few questions I been wondering about.

David H

You can always go to Hockey Buzz and read for the umptenth time on where Sundin is going to sign, Yawn!!! Almost as boring as where Favre was going to play or NOT! How many times can a guy retire.

THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION TO TALK FOOTBALL HERE, just a comparison.

SCSharksFan

Ivano,

That’s a great idea… why don’t you do a mini interview and post it here so the rest of us will have something to read. 😉

The Sharks did announce a change to their game schedule today… Whooppeee!

puckace

#79 Tano
I guess we’ve hit a new low in our hockey lull. A field hockey player with the name of Butt!

October can’t come soon enough…..

puckace

mikeGB

there’s a rumor that the sharks may be picking up Jeff Friesen 🙂

Bob K

Friesen! If that’s true it is more an attempt to draw ticket sales than anything else! That’s like having Three Dog Night playing at an Oklahoma casino.

Ivano

Friesen?! I say before we bring him back, let’s resign Irbe, pair up Ozo with DW, and have Jamie Baker play alongside Bruce and Falloon. Now I’ll buy a ticket to see that.

It’d be cool if he gets cameos (or dare I say, a role) on the big screen as well. Drooling just thinking about JR flexing on the big (or small) screen with no pads to obstruct the view. JR packs a very hot……smile. “-J

But first things first. Lord Stanley’s Cup….then TV.

Tano

Thanks Ivano for keeping the blog going!!!!

I am sure JR will do well in the big or small screen. He appeared a few times in sports programs, he has a good personality and an edge for this type of thing.
Perhaps he can be a smooth villan in one of the next Bond films….

Friesen probably has something left in his tank to play in the third or fourth line. The nice thing about these so called “old” guys is that they do not do it for the money but for the love of the sport, so they put a lot of pride and effort into it.

I’d welcome him back, he has a ring and that should count some towards our journey to Lord Stanley’s grail.

Tano

MAKE THAT WORD “VILLAIN” INSTEAD OF villan, or the Oxford Dictionary purists that we have in this blog will chase me…..

y

JR should get a role in “Rescue Me” they have tons of ex-player camios in that show…Neely, Espo, and a few others as well…JR would be a perfect fit with Boston born Leary and crew.

SCSharksFan

I love that show (Rescue Me)… I keep checking the listings to see when it’s gonna start again… they had like a year off because of the damn writers strike. I saw Leary on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart talking about it… that guy is funny… and a big time hockey fan… that’s what I like about the show too… when they have the games between the firemen and the policemen… they beat the hell out of each other… good stuff! Leary skates pretty well too… can’t wait for the season to start…

y

Great show. Right now on FX they are having these “mini-sodes” that are 8 minutes long…very funny. New season is going to start in early ’09. I think they will be airing the last full season starting soon to get us fans all up to speed.

andy

Is DP still working for the Sharks? Is the silence an indication a trade is in the works?
Heard a rumor Victor Chi was going to be resigned…